ORLEANS – Kevin Duchene pitched the game of his Cape Cod Baseball League summer, and Yarmouth-Dennis finds itself in the West Division finals because of him.

The Illinois southpaw limited Orleans to one hit and struck out 12 over 71/3 innings, Pro Prospect winner Phil Bickford (Cal State-Fullerton) closed the game out and the Red Sox took a flawlessly played 1-0 victory before nearly 3,000 Eldredge Park fans.

The third and decisive game of the East semifinal series was a night for pitching and small ball aficionados and took just two hours and five minutes.

Duchene outdueled Orleans and USC lefty Kyle Twomey and three Firebird relievers. The Red Sox scored the game's only run on a second-inning squeeze by Josh Lester of Missouri.

“I knew Twomey was going to be good,” Y-D manager Scott Pickler said. “I thought Duchene had that ability in him and he threw a great game tonight. That was his best performance of the year. Big guys step it up in big games and he really stepped it up.”

When Pickler finally came out to get his left-hander, Duchene had pitched 71/3 innings of one-hit ball and struck out 12. He got in trouble in the third inning when he walked two and hit a batter, but struck out Orleans cleanup hitter Bobby Dalbec with the bases loaded and two outs to end the threat.

“I threw a pretty good game against Falmouth earlier and I didn't throw well against Chatham my last outing,” Duchene said. “Five earned runs over five innings. It's been eating at me for about a week now. I feel I was a little more focused tonight. Obviously, with the stakes, I didn't want to let my team down and wanted to give them what they deserved.”

The game's lone run came in the second. With runners on first-and-third and one out, Lester dropped his bunt toward third. He was thrown out by Twomey, but Jordan Tarsovich (VMI) raced home with what turned out to be

the game's only run.

“I haven't (squeezed) a lot this year,” Pickler said. “I knew I needed to score first tonight. We were left-on-left and I thought it was the right thing to do.”

Lester was ready when he got the sign.

“I am a pretty good bunter,” Lester said. “Once he gave me the squeeze, I knew the situation, and I saw the runner break and just tried to get it down.

“This is awesome,” he said. “The competition is great here. Like tonight, a 1-0 pitchers' duel. As a player, you can ask for some runs, but these games that are really close are really exciting. You can't ask for more.”

There was nothing more to give as pitching dominated. Twomey left after five and Hayden Stone (Vanderbilt), Bobby Poyner (Florida) and Reilly Hovis (UNC) kept Y-D quiet the rest of the way.

Johnny Sewald almost tied the game for Orleans, flying out to the fence in right to end the seventh. That set in motion the end of the night for Duchene.

“He got to a high pitch count (a little over 100),” Pickler said. “He didn't want to come out in the seventh. I just thought it was the right time. When their guy hit the ball to the wall to end the seventh, his stuff was still good but not as good as it was in the first or second.”

And when you have a guy like Bickford, a 2013 No. 1 draft pick of the Blue Jays who throws in the high 90s, why wait?

Bickford came in with one out in the eighth, after Duchene had struck out Dathan Prewett looking. Bickford got two outs in the eighth, gave up a two-out single on a hard smash to third by Dalbec in the ninth, but reared

back and struck out R.J. Ybarra to end the two-hour game.

“Bickford shortens games,” Orleans manager Kelly Nicholson said. “We knew that going in.” The loss was extremely disappointing for the Firebirds, especially after winning the opening game of the series behind a brilliant effort by Kolton Mahoney of BYU.

“It's way tougher losing 1-0 than that game yesterday, losing 9-0,” Nicholson said. “It is what it is. A loss is a loss. As (Vanderbilit coach) Tim Corbin said, 'you're going 100 mph and then it comes to a

crashing halt and everyone will be gone tomorrow.' It's a weird deal. I've really enjoyed being around these guys.”

“They executed in the second inning,” Nicholson said of Y-D. “We had opportunities. We couldn't ask anymore from all the guys who threw. We had second and third one out, bases loaded one out and didn't' get a hit when

we needed. We get a hit there, we win 2-1. I was proud of our guys. They competed right down to the final out.”

NOTES: Winning share of the 50-50 raffle Saturday night was $1,074. ... Y-D is expected to start Florida Gulf Coast's Michael Murray (1-6, 3.53) in Game 1 of the East finals at Harwich tonight. Both shortstops – David

Fletcher of Orleans and Loyola Marymount, and Y-D's A.J. Simcox of Tennessee came up with outstanding defensive plays. … David Thompson (Miami) finished the series 4-for-10 after going 1-for-3 last night.